Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Derek Landy's I-Scream Spectacular!*

* may not contain ice-cream.

Behold the awesome!

On April 5th, in London, as part of my tour, we are offering a day at the movies, where I will be discussing the many movie influences that have shaped my life and, more specifically, that have shaped the Demon Road trilogy.

We are breaking the day into two halves.

At 1 PM, younger readers, accompanied by an adult, can go to the Picturehouse Cinema in London and experience 80's comedy-horror classic GREMLINS on the big screen...! It'll be my first time seeing it up there too — I've only ever seen this film on TV, so I am HUGELY excited.

Desolation will be available to buy, I'll be doing a Q&A, and signing whatever you have. It's going to be FUN.

Naturally, anyone 18 or over can come to both movies and make a day of it — as I will be — but sadly the younger Minions can not savour the delights of Freddy Krueger — at least not until you're older...

Though I'm mostly excited for my dinner tonight. Favorite restaurant. Yummy..Then, my mom is taking me to see the To Kill a Mockingbird play.

But in Nerf Wars, the game resumed yesterday after the funeral, so... I'm back in the red light.

Still going to kill it, though. I lowkey, when running after Anna Kelley, just DOVE out of the way of the bullets. It didn't help that she was a crappy shot, but it was as if I became another person xD I don't run that much because of my asthma, but I just booked it after her.

I also did a parkour roll, but failed when I rolled into my opponent's car

(*has been watching OUAT season 2 all night with Connor from episode 13 onwards**has accidentally got him hooked on it xD**he hasn't even SEEN season 1 or season 2 pre episode 13 and he was begging to watch just one more episode**now has scheduled a mini marathon with him on Saturday**happy*)

( I could send you all the seasons over skype or something if you wanted that way you can watch on whatever plus if you have vlc player you can watch it faster if you wanted ... I'm so used to watching youtube on times 2 that it kinda cam naturally for me to do that too... I still understand them fine ;p)

Yeah that's what I thought. So I was easily bored by it. Honestly I'm tempted to just google the plot and pretend I watched it. Go on Netflix and just click on the last episode avalible so it comes up on my continue to watch and appears I watched it.

It was soooo boring! I can't understand why it's popular. Then again people like fantasy but its so boring when soap opera style

True that. I mean I watch this one soap my parents watch, but it's kinda interesting because they have some form of a basis for it.

It's not all googly eyes and sex. Once I felt was just a bunch of fairy tale freaks falling in love and having kids and doing nothing interesting.

The one I watch with my parents the characters have this whole company rivalry one family owns one company the others the other company and they intermingle through marriage and affairs but like they make so realistic like okay yes the guy Victor is evil and hires a drug cartel guy to kidnap the other CEO and impersonate him and it works because he looks so like the CEO kidnapped. The guy's wife didn't notice. So then this is in the fall and now Victor is found guilty and probably gonna go to jail for like 2 episodes and go on house arrest but hey its more realistic then Once

*laughs* XD OUAT isn't that bad. There's a lot of falling in love though, I'll give you that. But it focuses a lot on split families and feelings of parenting and so on. I wouldn't lump that in with "falling in love and having kids" . . . although it technically sorta is but if doesn't activate the repulsive force (metaphor) so it's okay. I'll also grant you that it's hello unrealistic. The worst things about OUAT are Charming and Snow. Particularly Snow. She just needs to die. But you have characters like Regina and Gold and they're the reasons I watch it. Well, that plus my family makes me.

(Pacific Rim is a pretty kick-ass film with a pretty kick-ass theme song and pretty kick-ass jaegers and pretty kick-ass kuijis and pretty kick-ass characters and pretty kick-ass fights and pretty kick-ass plot that didn't waste time and gave us what Transformers didn't - no stupid moments or attempts at atrocious humour.)

(@John The chill is the moments between combat, the flashbacks (some characters share their memories) and the scientists trying to find information about the kuiji. They're the film's funny stress relief characters. They're not actually funny. But they're not full of stupid jokes, either.

Why am I not sleeping?

Oh, and about Trump's wall... like a wise man once said...

King Agesilaus, upon being shown the huge defensive walls of a neighboring city: “What Splendid Women’s Quarters”)

I saw to Kill a Mockingbird, the play. There was, afterward, a brief discussion in the audience.

I made ONE comment about Atticus- about his transition from magnanimity to nearly making the incorrect decision- and was cut off by the guy. He liked me, though. He said of all the discussions, my comment was his favorite and Imm now his favorite person XD *is cool*

I need to reread it sometime soon. Now that I'm older, I'll be able to further understand the multi-dimensional off of the story, and be able to look at t from many facets.

Because, of course, race is the easiest moral conflict of the story to deal with.

I'm very interested in Mayella. I mean, her father gets what he deserves after his revenge, and the story just about ends there. However... Mayella's mother died when she was young, and Lee all but states that Mayella was raped by her father, and we KNOW that she was physically abused. With seven other sibilings, Mayella became the mother figure. I just keep waiting for an explanation for what happened to her? With her father out of the way, she has to care for seven kids, and live in a town, hated by both races?!

As far as the Female self goes, her character is deep and intricate, and by leaving her story with tragedy, she is just another example of society's shortcomings: that justice prevails sometimes, but in many ways, we are all victims, and not all victims get the justice they rightfully deserve.

I'm actually upset that Cora died. I mean YES, she's evil, but when she had her heart put back in.. just for that moment.. that moment when she looked at Regina and.. saw her daughter as her daughter.. loved her completely.. "this would have been enough" D: ;-; That is.. it's just so.. breaking.)

@Kas: See, that's where our mismatch is. :P My brain isn't very compatible with fight scenes. It interprets it as "people fighting," tries to keep track of who's winning, gives up and zones out. :P I don't rate movies on their fight scenes any more than I rate books on their font (as in, it can happen occasionally, but it's exceedingly rare bevause I barely pay attention and when I do pay attention it's rarely of any importance to me so I don't remember it).Therefore, for me, personally, there was just nothing good about it whatsoever.

Have to admit though I read this book once (angels. Supernatural (not the show) romance. Girl called Nora who was stupid in the second one. Guy called Patch who was an angel. Pretty shiny hardback cover. Ringing any bells to anyone? Should do if you read a lot of those type of books, which I have, and idk why bevause I don't LIKE them) and the font was BEAUTIFUL. I spent like the first half hour freaking out about the font and then all the way through I was just like paying attention to the font and admiring it and I think I kept repeatedly commenting on blogland about how nice the font was because DUDE. It was BEAUTIFUL. Ever since then I've been looking out for fonts like that and I've decided that if I ever publish a book (which is not likely to happen, but IF) I'm going to use a pretty font because mate, I only read the books for the font. XD

But yeah that was a one-off experience. Normally I take notice of it on the first page and then tune out.

It was in the room I have English it's a big inner room with no windows split in half. I was in theatre class and we heard kids yelling fire and footsteps running. Next we hear our fire alarm we bolt out of the old auditorium and see smoke coming from the halls so we go running. We get outside we ended up being relocated to our football stadium and after a good 45 minutes we get in the building again and have short classes but it smelled horrid like you go near the room you got a headache and my locker is on the border of where it happened and where air was clean....

English was in the new auditorium....we did crap. We don't think our room will be ready until Monday or Tuesday....

@Noelle: Ahhhh that's the name!! *recognises it now but couldn't remember it before*

I have read worse. I've actually read a lot worse. :( I think. I've read a lot of bad books, though. It feels like such a waste of so many hours of my life now that I barely read at all (not due to disliking reading, due to other things consuming my time). I mean. I could have been reading GOOD books. :P

I just dislike when themes such as "love always prevails" describe a book. I want books to try to answer hard questions of life- what it means to be human. "Love always wins" isn't very realistic to te human experience, either. I want books to deal with suffering, anguish- but recognize compassion and humility. I want to be made to think, and to question the world around me. I want to be forced to evaluate myself, and ask if I'm being the best version of myself, or if I too am blind.

*nods to Inky* And, should that suit your tastes, then that is perfectly fine too.

I'm just the type of person who isn't afraid of hard things... Books for centuries have been about morals and lessons to be learned. It's mostly been the Romantic Era that changed that, I think. And I am very, very, far from a Romantic.

We read A Lesson Before Dying, a book about a man (Jefferson) put on death row for a crime that he didn't commit. The main character (Grant) encounters Jefferson and befriends him for the sake of his neighbor, the Jefferson's aunt. The aunt wants Grant to teach Jefferson courage and self-worth, so that Jefferson will be able to face his execution with courage, and face the racist ideas that blacks were unworthy and cowardly.

It was a really difficult book to read, especially because of a decision Grant makes at the end.

It's meant to be uncomfortable, and I like books like that. Being uncomfortable means, to me, that I'm facing something unfamiliar, or something that I subconsciously don't want to face. And I can't hide from life. I refuse to live with a cloth over my eyes.

I fully understand the nature of my field of study, anthropology. I also understand the darker sides of it.

When the September 11th terrorist attacks occurred, anthropologists were called to the site of the former World Trade Center to identify the bodies, attempt to piece people together, and make a general investigation into the nature of each person's death. Almost every anthropologist in the country was called in to help the effort and clean-up.

I know that, God forbid, should any horrendous act such as that occur again, I might be asked to help. I have to face the fact that life is, in many ways, a twisted, dark, and unnatural force. The depths that humans can reach into their minds is terrifying, and I have to recognize that sometimes, I have to put my own fear aside for the sake of other people.

Life isn't meant to be glorified, I think. There are some good parts, yes, and there are some bad parts, too. But it isn't healthy to look just at the good parts, in the same way that it isn't healthy to look at just the bad parts. However, to educate myself is personally my best way of learning about other people. To understand the world, I try to expose myself to as much of it as i can.

Have I explained my metaphor about primary and secondary emotion before . . . ? I can't remember whether I have or not. Either way. I muchly appreciate experiencing negative emotions due to books. But. I think it's different to the way you do it. My way is more akin to watching a horror movie. It's not very moralful or noble. :P

*Lorcan looked out over the balcony of his family home. He was a little bit older, almost 16 years older and a little bit wiser in ways but his appearance, thanks to his silver magic, hadn't changed all that much.

He was looking out at his 16 year old daughter, Ariana. She had beautiful, long silver hair and had also inherited her mother's wings which were that silver colour as well. But her hands were glowing purple. She was standing in front of a tree, sweeping her hands down to remove it's bark and her hands back up to put it back.

Ariana had always been powerful, ever since she was in her mother's womb but as she became older, her powers increased immensely. Plus being a silver mage with angelus abilities added with her power, he knew that she would be a top prize for any bounty hunter or villain who wanted her.

They had been able to travel around and keep a safe distance between themselves and society but that stopped 2 years ago when Casha became sick. She had encountered a being that could use shadows and became poisoned defending her daughter. She lost all her beautiful hair and her wings were slowly losing its feathers. They had to settle so she could be treated by medical mages and try and get her strength back. Lorcan knew that but it made him jittery.

His attention went back to watching Ariana as he sighed and took a deep breath.*

-*Adra is gently rocking Alek to sleep, and sets him in his crib* *She tucks him in, and immediately, he begins to cry* *He doesn't want to sleep yet* *Sighing, Adra picks him up again, and he stops crying* *It's tiring, because the baby is getting exactly what he wants, but he's still so little* *She can't say no*

*Casha slowly came out and stood beside Lorcan. She gave up wearing wigs, they made her head itch and just started wearing bandannas. She was wearing a bright yellow one today but was just walking around in tracksuit trousers and a vest.Lorcan looked at her and then shook his head as he started taking off his cardigan.*

Lorcan: You shouldn't be out here with no jacket on, it's not as warm as it looks.

Casha: I'm so warm though. I needed to feel the breeze on my skin. I needed to feel part of the living in some way.

*Lorcan put the cardigan down and took her hand, kissing it gently as he rubbed his finger over her wedding ring. He looked back at Ariana.*

Lorcan: Would you not let Ari try and see if she can help make you feel a bit better?

Casha: Absolutely not Lorcan! We don't know what this sickness could do to her if she tried to get rid of it. I will be fine, eventually. It is our absolute mission in life to keep her safe.

Lorcan: But my first mission was to keep you safe and I haven't done that.

Casha: You always keep me safe.

*She kissed him gently on the cheek as she lay her head on his shoulder and they both watched the sun slowly setting as their daughter still messed with the tree's bark.*

*After they had eaten, Lorcan sat Casha down on the couch, covering her with a blanket as he stoked the fire. Her temperature had dropped suddenly to how warm she was earlier on.

Ariana was walked past, heading for outside. Lorcan raised an eyebrow as he brushed his hands together.*

Lorcan: Don't go out Ariana, it's dark and you have homework to do.

*His daughter sighed and tutted as she stopped. She was starting to put on her jacket.*

Lorcan: Ariana, I'm not saying it again. You were told to rest and you have homework. No more magic and no more outside today.

*Ariana looked at Lorcan, she was getting frustrated as the lights around her dimmed and came back up again. Lorcan saw that and stood in front of Casha. Last time Ariana got mad she shattered a light bulb and had cut Casha on her face.*

Lorcan: Don't even try it young lady.

*The lights calmed down as Ariana then threw her jacket back on the chair and stomped her way upstairs. The lights slightly flickering and following her upstairs. Lorcan breathed a sigh of relief.*

ok i just realized: I have a permanent scar on my right ankle PURELY from shaving xD-*She thinks* I might wish to go on a walk, please. *She has her little tablet in her hand, which will notify her if the baby monitor goes off* I will know if Alek needs us.

*sighs* I think my headache went away. The smoke smell gave us all a headache but now I'm fairly certain it's screwing with me still.

That's what happens when you have an electrical fire at school and then an hour later you're back in class. The fact that you could see the smoke billowing out into the halls and smell it.

It was like all of a sudden my mind went into survival. Like okay this is real there's a fire close by me I honestly have no idea where. And I have to just run. And that's what I did. I got myself out of the building first then my class regrouped.

Then the next thing to hit me was if my mom made it out as she's in a class that was opposite me....

When they sent us to the stadium I went on ahead to find her because I just wanted to know she was okay. She was standing there by the ticket booth and gods that was just so relieving to see my mom and know she's okay. She said once her students were okay she was going to go find me but the principal said that they were sending those of us standing in the front of the building to the stadium and she said she wanted to wait for me to know I'm okay and they said okay.

Those of us in the front of the building were outside in the one side of faculty parking. Then those in the library, music hall, and a few English classes were in the student lot then everyone in the cafeteria, the classes on the old middle school side downstairs, and the classes all around the cafeteria were in the bus lotcwith the kids in gym and the poor kids on the upper level were in the old middle school fauculty parking like woah this is legit they only knew because a secretary took a wakie talkier

It is awkward :)-*She still can't help but try to hoist some of his weight for him- she just wants to care for her dove* *She has a warm blanket around her shoulders, and takes him around the lake* *She kisses his cheek*

*Ariana closed her door and threw her school bag into her wardrobe. She then searched through it and pulled out an oversized hoodie.

She had made cuts in the back for her wings and fold away pockets so she could fold them and cover them comfortably. She put it on and zipped it up before pulling up the hood, trying her best to cover all her silver hair. She then slowly and stealthily opened the sliding door and jumped down to the grass below her.

She fixed herself and pulled back up her hood slightly, putting her hands in her pockets and started walking towards the woods behind their house.*

*Adra is walking slowly for her husband, not wanting him to fall, but also going slow, so to not stumble* *It's a little chilly, she is realizing, but certainly not as cold as it has been* *Pulls her blanket more around her*

*Ariana walked down towards the lake. The wind lightly blew across the water, tussling the small silver strands that couldn't stay in her hood.

Her hands began glowing purple again as she channelled into her powers. She twirled her finger upwards and a small water tornado appeared. She flattened her hands and the tornado stayed. She pushed her hands away from one another and it split into two.

She smiled.

She then wanted to try something for a while now since she really started practising her powers. She lightly flexed her fingers and small shards of silver started attaching itself to the water tornadoes, dying the water silver.

She smiled again but then noticed that her hands were shaking and her fingertips were feeling slightly numb but she didn't stop. These were her powers, she needed to find out what she could do.*

*Ariana was concentrating so much on the WATER SPOUTS in front of her that she didn't notice her silver was turning the whole lake silver. Her hands were really shaking now that she was starting to lose control over the water. She needed to catch her breath but she didn't want to stop. She raised her hand up and the spouts grew slightly bigger, her silver still spreading across the lake, almost reaching the other side.*

[The watch on Leigh's wrist has two faces. One shows the time, the other's counting down. They make an irritating ticking noise, but if she tries to leave them behind, she gets extremely anxious and starts shaking]

*A sharp pain shot up Ariana's arm from her hand. She let out a cry and fell backwards, clutching her arm. The water spouts fell roughly back into the lake as she saw what her silver had done. She gasped.

It took a minute or two but finally the silver started to slowly dissolve into the water like sugar.

Ariana stayed down where she was, she was sweating and was trying to catch her breath again, still clutching her arm.*

*Ariana went to move but the pain shot up her arm again. She looked at her hand and could see a dark purple streak run from her hand up under her sleeve.She then looked up, she could feel magic around her and it wasn't her parents.She couldn't stay out her and injured, she would be in so much trouble.

But her arm was so sore and she was dizzy and still trying to calm her breathing. Maybe she had taken it a bit too far tonight.*

*Ariana was able to get to her feet, but wobbled quite badly. She clutched her arm closer to her body as she slowly moved back.*

Ariana: No, I'm alright. Thank you, just me being clumsy again. Thank you but I have to go home.

*Ariana didn't realise that her hoodie had dislodged slightly when she fell back, a tip of one of her wings were showing and her hood was almost all the way down, letting a strand of silver hair fall onto her face.*

*Adra's hair is white, so she certainly won't judge the woman* Please, allow me to help you. You're clearly unwell, and if it was you who created that surge of energy, then you need to rest a moment. Please. I can escort you home. Or my husband can teleport you there.

*Adra just frowns at her, and gets down on both knees, gently placing a hand on Ariana's arm* *She gently feels along in her energy, and will try to draw some of it out, or, at least, disperse it* *If not, she will find a the nearest pressure point, and gently massage it*

*Adra giggles a little* Of course they are. *She moves, and lifts the younger woman gently to her feet, so she is hoisted* *She concentrates her energy- glances at her husband, because she wants to try this for herself* *She harnesses what little of her husband's energy as she can, and teleports them herself*

*Ariana breathes a sigh of relief as they land in her room. She walks over to the wardrobe and takes off the hoodie. She stretches out her wings full length as she looked at her arm. It wasn't hurting anymore but there was still a faint purple streak going up her arm.

She turned to the woman and smiled sheepishly, looking at the clock on her wall then. It was coming up to midnight, she still had homework to do.*

*Adra sighs, and shakes her head* Trust a Thomas, of course. *She just turns, and will slide the window open- she's too far from her husband to effectively use his energy again, and moves to hop out* *Pauses* By the way, magic is not more important than family.

*Ariana threw on her pyjama top when she saw that the woman was gone. She then walked over to the door to let her mother in.Casha smiled and then walked in and sat straight on the bed. She looked out of breath just from doing that.*

Casha: Listen sweetie, I know I was harsh on you earlier and I'm sorry. Me and your dad know that you want to explore what you can do and learn more about your powers but they are strong and we're just worried about what they could do to others and to you.

*Ariana sat down beside her mother and really looked at her. She could see how tired and drained her mother looked and how different and thin her face seemed without her hair. She finally saw how sick her mother really was. She gulped, trying not to tear up in front of Casha.*

Ariana: I understand mam, and I am sorry I made the lights flicker. I won't do it again.

Casha: Thank you for understanding Ari, it means a lot. Anyway you better get some sleep and I'll see you in the morning.

*Casha stood and kissed Ariana on the forehead before she walked out, coughing hard as she closed the bedroom door. Once the door was closed, Ariana let the silver tears run down her cheeks.*

*His hands are large and warm compared to hers, so she tucks herself into his lap* *He's like her large bear, and she is just be little fox* *But she snuggles into his lap gently* *Teleportation is tiring*